[Intermission] Karaoke
I am too busy lately to spare my time with this blog. I can’t even update my mixi(my Japanese blog)! But I think thing will cool down from next month because I will start a new life, and find some more time to update here, really.
Having said that, I had some nice parties while I was working. Those guests came from mostly UK, and they are my good friends(non-otaku). When he arrived in Tokyo, we met up. And when his younger sister and her boyfriend arrived, we met up. And when they brought their friends to have fun, we met up. Oh no, I had more than three parties in the last three weeks.
Some of them have already been to Japan, and my friend even applied for a job to come again. I don’t know what made him do something like that, so I asked him and his younger sister why. Both answered, it’s for fun! And one of those things they love in particular is karaoke[カラオケ].
Accroding to the two, there is no karaoke booth in UK. So if they want to do karaoke, they have to go to a bar or a club. And you have to sing in front of many unknown people. Of course you have to order some drinks so it would be more expensive.
Meanwhile, if you pay about 650 yen(6$?) or so, you can sing for 7 hours with all-you-can-drink at a daytime. If you pay about 2,800 yen(25$?) or so, you can party down till dawn with all-you-can-drink including alchole. So when my friends come to Japan, they absolutely dash to a karaoke booth and have a party. When I had a party with them, I was engaged in ordering their drinks because they were so fast!
You think otakus are too shy to sing in front of anybody else? No, not so. Seemingly they are shy, but actually they do when they are in a space which only otakus are! Of course, when otakus go to karaoke, they would sing a lot of anime songs as they like. They are even familiar with some karaoke equipments such as UGA, Joysound, or DAM since some of them show anime movies for each song. My favorite is DAM.
How you enjoy karaoke is up to you. Actually I love it. No matter what, I go to karaoke at least twice a month. Otherwise, I would be insane. Also, there is a funny word to introduce, that is ヒトカラ[hitokara]. This is an abbreviation of 一人でカラオケ[hitori de karaoke] which means to go to karaoke by oneself. Sounds lonely? No no no, actually there are a lot of people who enjoy ヒトカラ. As I have said, karaoke is so cheap here that you can kill time so easily. Also, you can practice singing, and try out some new songs you are learning. Now that you are alone in the booth, no one cares if you make a mistake. You can shout as you like. I am such an otaku that I have to care about songs I choose depending upon who I go with. I can’t sing any anime songs in front of non-otaku people, right? So in order to clear my frustration, I do hitokara and keep singing songs from otome games.
When I went to karaoke with some other bloggers from Singapore, I was so surprised because they naturally sang some J-POP songs without English captions. I guess they must have listened to it so many times.
If you plan to come to Japan, why don’t you try karaoke? Have fun!
喪男[mo otoko]
This post contains some brutal contexts. Viewers’ understanding is required. Read the rest of this entry »
π/（パイスラ）[paisura](*´д｀*)ﾊァﾊァ
OMG, here is a feticism I am really obssessed with. Actually I can see schoolgirls on the way to work, and I can’t stop looking at a certain area, I mean the shoulderbag’s suspender between her two breasts! Yes, we can call it パイスラ[paisura], and it is also written as π[pi]/. Please look at above picture. She hangs her schoolbag from her neck, and it passes through her breasts, doesn’t it? And it makes her breasts look bigger, noticable, I feel. I end up looking at this for some reason. I know, I feel I am going to get arrested sooner or later. You could tell I got caught if this blog stopped.
Why paisura? This word can be divided into two parts, pai and sura. パイ[pai] stems from おっぱい[oppai] or breasts and スラ[sura ]means slash[/]. See? / quite symbolizes the suspender between the boobs. I just thought only 絶対領域[zettai ryouiki] could kill me, but something like this came out…I didn’t even think about this way…Come to think of it, there are some more similarities most men feel hot. When guys are talking about women or a feticism, this kind of thing is most likely to be mentioned; 裸エプロン[hadaka apron, only wearing an apron] is a typical example. When a husband comes home, his wife is making dinner, wearing an apron…only wearing an apron. 男なら誰しもが夢見るWell then, after having a sex, she is wearing his shirt as a pajyama. The shirt is a bit too large for her, and her panty can be seen…yes, this could kill men. Why don’t you try this for your boyfriend? Anyway, if you try パイスラ, make sure you keep it innocent. Don’t let him tell you are doing on purpose. The more innocent it looks, the better.
naked girl + men's shirt = moe moe!
This term was born in a certain blog when the blogger made a thread to name breasts in that way. As other bloggers came up with a name, they bestowed パイスラ. Finally, such an オンリーイベント[only event] took place…
Speaking of pai-thing, I should mention one more, and that is something most men dream. It’s パイズリ[paizuri]. あの…えっと…これは…you could see this in eroge or porn video. Sandwich a penis inbetween the breasts, and rub it up and down. And there is パイパン[paipan]. This pai doesn’t mean breasts, but 牌[pai] or a tile from mah-jong[麻雀]. パイパン is written as 白板 in kanji, which means a tile with no picture. This implies a hairless vagina, that is, such an immature girl. I have already introduced つるぺったん[tsurupettan], and this is classified as a lolita terminology. 言っとくけど俺はロリコンじゃないからね！
Oh no, I carried away. Too many pornographic words, I’m sorry. What am I talking about? This entry is for パイスラ, though. Anyway, I really appreciate the one who came up with this term. And when you see it, please shout パイスラ inside!
オッドアイ [odd eye]
I used to be a big fan of GTO[Great Teacher Onizuka] when I was a student. I am pretty sure you don’t know this anime since it is a very old series, so I shall quickly explain the summary. The story is simple, a 22-year-old Onizuka who used to be the head of the gang starts a new life as a teacher in Kichijoji[吉祥寺, does this ring a bell to you if you know Cafe吉祥寺で]. The class he shall manage is actually the worst at the school. All of the teachers have been boycotted because of the harrassment by the students. Onizuka tries to understand the students and figure out why they hate the teachers.
At any rate, there is a girl I really like in this anime. She is Kanzaki Urumi[神崎麗美]. I will tell you about her more later, so now please look at her right eye. It’s light-blue, isn’t it? Just one eye is colored…that is オッドアイ[odd eye]. Technically, it’s called Heterochromia[ヘテロクロミア] Iridis and in Japanese, we say 虹彩異色症[kousai ishokushou] or 金目銀目[kinme ginme]. This is often seen among cats or dogs, and as for human beings it’s very rare. But it sure exists. In the history, Aleksandros ho Megas had オッドアイ. Because of such a legend, it is said people who have オッドアイ have a mysterious power to see things we can’t see. Yes, we say 邪眼[jagan] or 魔眼[magan]. So オッドアイ seems to be kind of charming though I wonder how those who have it actually feel. This is basically a kind of physical disorder, so it requires understanding and patience to treat it as a genre of moe.
In real life colored eyes have no special power, however, it is not in anime. If there is a character who has オッドアイ in the series, watch out, there is a story.
Kanzaki Urumi has a deep secret with her birth. In fact, she is a test-tube girl. Her mother bought an intelligent man’s one from the sperm bank. We are never told who her father actually is, but that is why she is extremely intelligent. Just because her father could be a Caucasian, it doesn’t mean she has オッドアイ. But it has something to do with that…At any rate, she is almost an outcast in the class because of her awesome intelligence (besides, the school treated her as a special student). In such a time, just a female teacher of her was nice to her when she was 10 or so. Urumi was so happy that she came to her place to study almost every single day. The teacher actually got frustrated as Urumi even surpassed her, so there was nothing to teach. When Urumi pointed out her mistake during the lesson, she spoke out the secret that Urumi was a test-tube girl in front of all the classmates. Since then, she stopped trusting people and that is why she hates teachers.
One more example, here is Oskar von Reuenthal[オスカー・フォン・ロイエンタール] whose nickname is Bewitching Eyes from Legend of the Galactic Heroes[銀河英雄伝説]. He used to be maltreated by his mother because of his eye when he was a kid. Even though he acts like a playboy, he doesn’t trust women at heart.
Okay, I shall pick up someone from more recent series…then it is still old but I mustn’t forget Suiseiseki and Souseiseki from Rozen Maiden. Their eyes are green and red, but as if they have totally different thoughts each other, the colored eyes are placed in a reversed position.
Since the big hit of Rozen Maiden, we have seen a lot of characters who have オッドアイ, haven’t we? Ryomo Shimei[呂蒙子明] from Ikkitousen[一騎当千] and Iba Itsuki from Rental Magica. Ryomo Shimei possesses Ryubi’s dragon in her left eye. Itsuki possesses Glam Sight [fairy eye, 妖精眼] in his right eye. The common point is that both are using an eye patch[眼帯, gantai] to cover. Putting aside オッドアイ, we can find such a half-eyed character so easily in anime, can’t we? If either eye is covered or veiled with something(mostly front hair), you can say 片目キャラ[katame chara] or メカクレ[mekakure], and such a girl is 目隠れっ娘[mekakrekko]. Of course, if you love such a girl, you have 目隠れっ娘萌え[mekakurekko moe]. If both eyes are covered, it is メカクレ like Belphegor in Katei Kyoushi Hitman! Reborn. My favorite is Dokuro-chan, her eye patch is a moe to me, yes I have 眼帯萌え[gantai moe]!
Back to the topic, as odd-eyed characters become popular, cosplayers are willing to buy カラコン[colored contacts] to copy. Now young people including アゲ嬢 are buying them for fashion, and they are not so expensive at a discount store. But know this, those contacts have no prescription, so it would be dangerous to wear for hours. If possible, you had better buy prescripted ones for your eyes. I have light blue, purple, red, and yellow brown ones. I wear contacts only when I cosplay, and as soon as I finish, I take off.
color contacts
As I have said, Heterochromia is kind of a disorder so this might require your understanding. We have to be aware of the fact that there are people who have Heterochromia, and I am hoping we could understand and accept the differences in order to enjoy the creativity.
男段位[otoko dan’i]
I feel women are getting stronger more and more lately. Why do we have so many words to describe how strong and powerful women are and how vulnerable men seem to have been like 草食男子[soushoku danshi] or イクメン[ikumen]? I also feel women might even take over men’s place and rule this world in the future. But I think that would be nice because it is better for this irritating world where obtuse men rule. 別にそれはそれでアリだと思います。
At any rate, I found a word to introduce, and again this is to describe such a powerful and cool lady…that is 男段位[otoko dan’i]. 男[otoko] means a man, and 段位[dan’i] means a rank or a title to place your ability in a technical way. The higher the better. In Japan, 段[dan] is most likely to be used for martial arts like 柔道[judo] or 空手[karate], and 将棋[shougi, Japanese chess]. Four[四段] or five[五段] dan onwords seem to have a great reputation.
I said 男段位 means a cool and strong lady, but at the same time it also means such an 俺女[ore onna]. The way she is, and the way she speaks look like a man, yes, she is entitled to be 男段位. Besides, the maximum is 8[八, hachi] though I don’t know why, so we say 男八段[otoko hachidan] to mean such a coolest lady. I introduced 兄貴[aniki] before, and men use it to admire such a cool guy, and 男八段 almost works the same way. Please know 男八段 does not necessarily mean a crossdresser, I mean we call such a lady おなべ[onabe], and おかま means such a guy, which means lesbian and gay respectively. Both おなべ and おかま mean a person who crossdresses(or behaves as the other sex) in order to switch his/her gender.
This word was born in the radio program by Megumi Ogata[緒方恵美] who voices Ikari Shinji in Evangelion, Kurama in Yu-Yu-Hakusho, and Sailor Uranus in Sailor Moon. The program named 緒方恵美の銀河にほえろ！[Shout at the galaxy!] was aired from 1996-1998, and so popular among not only her fans but other anime fans. Speaking of Sailor Moon, the series has a lot of male and female fans, so I must say she is really loved by most anime fans. In this program, there was a section she hosted as a life advisor for listeners, and she good took care of her fans. Sometimes she got to an brutal conclusion. The funny thing is that she used to read the letters from her fans over a glass of sake named 男八段. I have never tasted the sake, though.
Then who could be a 男八段 in anime? Speaking of such a cool and dashy woman, I can think of Oscar in Rose of Versaille, and Tenjo Utena in Revolutionary Girl Utena. ただしだからと言ってウテナのように自分を「ボク」と呼ぶのは痛いので止めましょう。あれは2次元だから萌えになるのであって現実にやるとただの厨二病なんで。Oscar is destined to live as a man so she has to give up happiness as a woman. I have no idea how hard and tough such a life is. That might be what Oscar chose for her own, but can you imagine how hard being always surrounded by a bunch of men to lead them? Besides, she can’t be allowed to show her weakness to anyone else…oh no, I really adore Oscar! No wonder most women respect and adore her.
By the way, 男装[dansou] means a woman’s crossdressing. Wherever it is, whenever it is, even in the olden time, it seems to have been a kind of feticism. In kabuki[歌舞伎] or the likes, we have seen such a heroine who was raised as a boy. It is really extraordinary, but at the same time it is something women might get captivated, isn’t it?
Meanwhile, 女装[josou, crossdressing by men] is getting popular more and more. We could see a lot of male characters occasionally crossdressing. Anime fans always come up with a new term or a similar one. I already introduced 女装少年[josou shounen], but here is a similar word, おとこの娘[otoko no ko], which means a little boy who looks like a girl. おとこ[otoko] can be written as 男 in kanji, but hiragana somehow makes it sound childish. 娘[musume], or girl is not officially read as こ[ko], and the correct one is 子[ko]. The hybrid of a little boy and a girl is…such a おとこの娘. By the way, if you think shota is a moe for girls only, it is wrong. Actually there are quite a few of male fans…
おとこの娘
Japanese words of anime fans, by anime fans, for anime fans 